Various types of animals, such as equines and ungulates, have hooves that grow much like human nails and thus require regular care and maintenance. This is especially the case with horses that are regularly fitted with shoes, such as riding horses and show horses. The shoes are secured to the hoofs by nails that are driven upwardly into the hoofs. Like all appendages, nerves and blood vessels circulate through the hoofs for carrying nutrients, oxygen and for the transmission of sensory stimulation.
The hoofs require continual care so as to avoid and prevent foot injuries; and thus a common activity for all horse owners and farriers is trimming the hoofs in the same manner that the nails of a human being are trimmed. In addition, the hoofs must be continuously checked and cleaned of grit, sand, gravel, stones, pebbles and other debris that has accumulated in the frog area or into any gaps or cracks on the hoof surface or between the shoe and the underside of the hoof. Among the most painful and potentially debilitating types of cracks that occur are cracks called quarter cracks that run vertically along the hoof. Because the hoof is a continually growing appendage, there is no way to actually close the crack; generally the only course of action is to prevent the further extension of the crack keeping the hoof properly trimmed as the continuous growth of the hoof eventually causes the crack to grow out.
Due to the great time and expense that horse owners and breeders invest in their animals, the prior art reveals a range of devices and methods for both shoeing hoofed animals, and for maintaining the condition and health of the animals' hooves.
For example, the Spencer patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,340) discloses a horse hoof repair kit that includes extending a suture through opposite side of a crack in the horse's hoof, filling the crack with an adhesive material and then placing the hoof in a bag that applies pressure to the adhesive to facilitate the curing of the adhesive.
The Tennant patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,411) discloses a method of making a horseshoe that includes placing the hoof in a mold, filling the mold with a plastic acrylic material, and then curing the material by exposure to UV light so that the material integrally bonds to the hoof.
The Busser patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,727) discloses a method of repairing the horse's hoof that includes the use of a synthetic resin and filler particles that are cured by addition of a hardening catalyst and an accelerator
The Schaffer patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,289) discloses a process for repairing a crack in a horse's hoof or attaching a shoe to the hoof that includes heating a urethane liquid so that a phase change occurs increasing the bonding action for attaching a shoe to the hoof or for repairing a crack in the hoof.
The Rovelli et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,566 B1) discloses a horse hoof protection method that includes injecting a rapidly curing synthetic organic resin adherent into the open volume at the hoof bottom wall so that the resin adherent can cure and fill the open volume thereby protecting the sensitive area of the hoof bottom wall.
The Jacobs patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,025 B1) discloses a method of protecting a horse's hoof that includes compositions that are combined from separate cartridges for injection into the open volume of the hoof bottom wall thereupon forming a rapidly curing organic resin that hydraulically fills the open volume.
Nonetheless, despite the ingenuity of the above methods and compositions, there remains a need for a method and composition for repairing and protecting animal hooves that is easy to apply and is not uncomfortable to the animal during application.